The threefold ministry of John the Baptist

We now begin (Matt. 3) His actual history. John the Baptist
comes to prepare the way of Jehovah before Him, according to the
prophecy of Isaiah; proclaiming that the kingdom of heaven was at
hand, and calling on the people to repent. It is by these three
things that John's ministry to Israel is characterised in this
Gospel. First the Lord Jehovah Himself was coming. The Holy Ghost
leaves out the words "for our God," at the end of the verse,
because Jesus comes as man in humiliation, although acknowledged at
the same time to be Jehovah, and Israel could not be thus owned as
entitled to say "our." In the second place the kingdom of heaven
[1] was at hand that new dispensation which was to take the place
of the one which, properly speaking, belonged to Sinai, where the
Lord had spoken on the earth. In this new dispensation "the heavens
should reign." They should be the source of, and characterise,
God's authority in His Christ. Thirdly, the people, instead of
being blessed in their present condition, were called to repentance
in view of the approach of this kingdom. John therefore takes his
place in the wilderness, departing from the Jews, with whom he
could not associate himself because he came in the way of
righteousness (Matt. 21: 32). His food is that which he finds in
the wilderness (even his prophetic garments bearing witness to the
position which he had taken on the part of God), himself filled
with the Holy Ghost.

[1] This expression is found only in Matthew, as specially
occupied with dispensations, and the dealings of God with the
Jews. "The kingdom of God" is the generic term. "The kingdom of
heaven" is the kingdom of God, but the kingdom of God as specially
taking this character of heavenly government; we shall find it
(farther on) separated into the kingdom of our Father, and the
kingdom of the Son of man. Thus was he a prophet, for he came from
God, and addressed himself to the people of God to call them to
repentance, and he proclaimed the blessing of God according to the
promises of Jehovah their God; but he was more than a prophet, for
he declared as an immediate thing the introduction of a new
dispensation, long expected, and the advent of the Lord in
Person. At the same time, although coming to Israel, he did not own
the people, for they were to be judged; the threshing-floor of
Jehovah was to be cleansed, the trees that did not bear good fruit
to be cut down. It would be a remnant only that Jehovah would place
in the new position in the kingdom that he announced, without its
being yet revealed in what manner it was to be established. He
proclaimed the judgment of the people.

The Lord God in the midst of His people Israel

What a fact of immeasurable greatness was the presence of the
Lord God in the midst of His people, in the Person of Him who,
although He was doubtless to be the fulfilment of all the promises,
was necessarily, though rejected, the Judge of all the evil
existing among His people! And the more we give these passages
their true application, that is to say, the more we apply them to
Israel, the more we apprehend their real force.[1]

[1] And we must remember that, besides the special promises to,
and calling, of Israel as God's earthly people, that people were
just man viewed in his responsibility to God under the fullest
culture that God could give him. Up to the flood there was
testimony but no dispensational dealings, or institutions of God.
After it, in the new world, human government, calling and promise
in Abraham, law, Messiah, God come in grace, everything God could
do, and that in perfect patience, was done, and in vain as to good
in flesh; and now Israel was being set aside as in the flesh, and
the flesh judged, the fig-tree cursed as fruitless, and God's man,
the second Adam, He in whom blessing was by redemption, introduced
into the world. In the first three Gospels, as we have seen, we
have Christ presented to man to be received; in John, man is set
aside and Israel, and God's sovereign ways in grace and
resurrection brought in.

Eternal necessity for repentance: the consequences of refusal of God's call to it

No doubt repentance is an eternal necessity to every soul that
approaches God; but what a light is thrown upon this truth, when we
see the intervention of the Lord Himself who calls His people to
this repentance, setting aside-- on their refusal -- the whole
system of their relationships with Him, and establishing a new
dispensation a kingdom which only belongs to those who hear Him --
and causing at length His judgment to break forth against His
people and the city which He had so long cherished! "If thou hadst
known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong
unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes."

Judgment impending: the new state distinguished by baptism

This truth gives room for the exhibition of another and most
highly important one, announced here in connection with the
sovereign rights of God rather than in its consequences, but which
already contained in itself all those consequences. The people from
all parts, and as we learn elsewhere especially the ungodly and
despised, went out to be baptised, confessing their sins. But those
who, in their own eyes, held the chief place among the people, were
in the eyes of the prophet who loved the people according to God,
the objects of the judgment he announced. Wrath was impending. Who
had warned these scornful men to flee from it? Let them humble
themselves like the rest; let them take their true place, and prove
their change of heart. To boast in the privileges of their nation,
or of their fathers, availed nothing before God. He required that
which His very nature, His truth, demanded. Moreover He was
sovereign; He was able of those stones to raise up children to
Abraham. This is what His sovereign grace has done, through Christ,
with regard to the Gentiles. There was reality needed. The axe was
at the root of the trees, and those that did not bring forth good
fruit should be cut down. This is the great moral principle which
the judgment was going to put in force. The blow was not yet
struck, but the axe was already at the root of the trees. John was
come to bring those who received his testimony into a new position,
or at least into a new state in which they were prepared for it. On
their repentance he would distinguish them from the rest by
baptism. But He who was coming after John He whose shoes John was
not worthy to bear -- would thoroughly purge His floor, would
separate those that were truly His, morally His, from among His
people Israel (that was His floor), and would execute judgment on
the rest. John on his part opened the door to repentance
beforehand; afterwards should come the judgment.

The twofold baptism attributed to Jesus by John

Judgment was not the only work that belonged to Jesus. Two
things are however attributed to Him in John's testimony He
baptises with fire -- this is the judgment proclaimed in verse 12,
which consumes all that is evil. But He baptises also with the Holy
Ghost -- that Spirit which, given to, and acting in divine energy
in man, quickened, redeemed, cleansed in the blood of Christ,
brings him out from the influence of all that acts on the flesh,
and sets him in connection and in communion with all that is
revealed of God, with the glory into which He brings His creatures
in the life which He imparts, destroying morally in us the power of
all that is contrary to the enjoyment of these privileges.

The only good fruit recognised by John

Observe here, that the only good fruit recognised by John, as
the way of escape, is the sincere confession, through grace, of
sin. Those only who make this confession escape the axe. There
were really no good trees excepting those which confessed that they
were bad. But what a solemn moment was this for the people beloved
of God! What an event was the presence of Jehovah in the midst of
the nation with whom He stood in relationship!

The Messiah presented as Jehovah the Judge

Observe that John the Baptist does not here present the Messiah
as the Saviour come in grace, but as the Head of the kingdom, as
Jehovah, who would execute judgment if the people did not
repent. We shall see afterwards the position which He took in
grace.

The baptism of Jesus: the Lord's presentation of Himself with His people in grace

In verse 13 Jesus Himself, who until now has been presented as
the Messiah and even as Jehovah, comes to John to be baptised with
the baptism of repentance. We must remember that to come to this
baptism was the only good fruit which a Jew, in his then condition,
could produce. The act proved itself to be the fruit of a work of
God -- of the effectual work of the Holy Ghost. He who repents
confesses that he has previously walked afar from God; so that it
is a new movement, the fruit of God's word and work in him, the
sign of a new life, of the life of the Spirit in his soul. By the
very fact of John's mission, there was no other fruit, no other
admissible proof, of life from God, in a Jew. We are not to infer
from this, that there were none in whom the Spirit already acted
vitally; but, in this condition of the people and according to the
call of God by His servant, that was the proof of this life -- of
the turning of the heart to God. These were the true remnant of the
people, those whom God acknowledged as such; and it was thus they
were separated from the mass who were ripening for judgment. These
were the true saints -- the excellent of the earth; although the
self-abasement of repentance could be their only true place. It was
there they must begin. When God brings in mercy and justice, they
avail themselves thankfully of the former, confessing it to be
their only resource, and they bow their heart before the latter, as
the just consequence of the condition of God's people, but as
applying it to themselves. Now Jesus presents Himself in the midst
of those who do this. Although truly the Lord, Jehovah, the
righteous Judge of His people, He who was to purge His floor, He
nevertheless takes His place among the faithful remnant who humble
themselves before this judgment. He takes the place of the lowest
of His people before God; as in Psalm 16 He calls Jehovah His Lord,
saying unto Him, "My goodness extendeth not to Thee"; and says to
the saints, and the excellent in the earth, "all my delight is in
them." Perfect testimony of grace -- the Saviour identifying
Himself, according to this grace, with the first movement of the
Spirit in the hearts of His own people, humbling Himself not only
in the condescension of grace towards them, but in taking His place
as one of them in their true position before God; not merely to
comfort their hearts by such kindness, but in order to sympathise
with all their sorrows and their difficulties; in order to be the
pattern, the source, and the perfect expression of every sentiment
suitable to their position.

The Lord's association with the poor of the flock to lead them unto enjoyment of blessing

With wicked unrepentant Israel He could not associate Himself,
but with the first living effect of the word and Spirit of God in
the poor of the flock, He could and did in grace. He does so
now. With the first right step, one really of God, Christ is
found. But there was yet more. He comes to bring those who received
Him into relation with God, according to the favour which rested on
perfectness like His, and on the love which, by taking up His
people's cause, satisfied the heart of the Lord, and, having
perfectly glorified God in all that He is, made it possible for Him
to satisfy Himself with goodness. We know indeed that in order to
do this, the Saviour had to lay down His life, because the
condition of the Jew, as that of every man, required this sacrifice
before either the one or the other could stand in relation with the
God of truth. But even for this the love of Jesus did not
fail. Here however He is leading them on to the enjoyment of the
blessing expressed in His Person, which should be securely founded
on that sacrifice -- blessing which they must reach by the path of
repentance, into which they entered by John's baptism; which Jesus
received with them, that they might go on together towards the
possession of all the good things which God has prepared for them
that loved Him.

John's opposition: the true character of the Lord's action

John, feeling the dignity and excellency of the Person of Him
who came unto him, opposes the Lord's intention. The Holy Ghost by
this brings out the true character of the Lord's action. As to
Himself, it was righteousness which brought Him there, and not sin
-- righteousness which He accomplished in love. He, as well as John
the Baptist, fulfilled that which belonged to the place assigned
Him by God. With what condescension He links Himself at the same
time with John -- "It becometh us." He is the lowly and obedient
Servant. It was thus He ever behaved Himself on earth. Moreover, as
to His position, grace brought Jesus there, where sin brought us,
who came in by the door the Lord had opened for His sheep. In
confessing sin as it is, in coming before God in the confession of
(the opposite of sin morally) our sin, we find ourselves in company
with Jesus[1]. Indeed it is in us the fruit of His Spirit. This was
the case with the poor sinners who came out to John. Thus it was
that Jesus took His place in righteousness and obedience among men,
and more exactly among the repentant Jews. It is in this position
of a man -- righteous, obedient, and fulfilling on earth, in
perfect humility, the work for which He had offered Himself in
grace, according to Psalm 40, giving Himself up to the
accomplishment of all the will of God in complete renunciation --
that God His Father fully acknowledged Him, and sealed Him,
declaring Him on earth to be His well-beloved Son.

[1] It is the same thing as to the sense of our nothingness. He
made Himself nothing, and in the consciousness of our nothingness
we find ourselves with Him, and at the same time are filled with
His fulness. Even when we fall, it is not until we are brought to
know ourselves as we really are that we find Jesus raising us up
again.

The heavens opened; the Beloved Son; the descent of the Holy Spirit

Being baptised the most striking token of the place He had taken
with His people -- the heavens are opened unto Him, and He sees the
Holy Ghost descending on Him like a dove; and, lo! a voice from
heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased." But these circumstances demand attention. Never were the
heavens opened to the earth, nor to a man on the earth, before the
beloved Son was there [1]. God had doubtless, in His longsuffering
and in the way of providence, blessed all His creatures; He had
also blessed His own people, according to the rules of His
government on earth. Besides this, there were the elect, whom He
had preserved in faithfulness. Nevertheless until now the heavens
had not been opened. A testimony had been sent by God in connection
with His government of the earth; but there was no object on the
earth upon which the eye of God could rest with complacency, until
Jesus, sinless and obedient, His beloved Son, stood there. But what
is so precious to us is, that it is as soon as in grace He takes
publicly this place of humiliation with Israel -- that is, with the
faithful remnant, presenting Himself thus before God, fulfilling
His will -- the heavens open upon an object worthy of their
attention. Ever doubtless was He worthy of their adoration, even
before the world was. But now He has just taken this place in the
dealings of God as a man, and the heavens opened unto Jesus, the
object of God's entire affection on the earth. The Holy Ghost
descends upon Him visibly. And He, a man on earth, a man taking His
place with the meek of the people who repented, is acknowledged as
the Son of God. He is not only anointed of God, but, as man, He is
conscious of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Him -- the seal of
the Father set upon Him. Here it is evidently not His divine
nature, in the character of the Eternal Son of the Father. The seal
would not even be in conformity with that character; and as to His
Person it is manifested, and His consciousness of it, at twelve
years old in Luke's Gospel. But while He is such, He is also a man,
the Son of God on the earth, and is sealed as a man. As a man He
has the consciousness of the immediate presence of the Holy Ghost
with Him. This presence is in connection with the character of
lowliness, meekness, and obedience, in which the Lord appeared down
here. It is "like a dove" that the Holy Ghost descends upon Him;
just as it was in the form of tongues of fire, that He came down
upon the heads of the disciples, for their testimony in power in
this world, according to the grace which addressed each and every
one in his own language.

[1] In the beginning of Ezekiel, it is said indeed that the
heavens were opened; but this was only in vision, as the prophet
himself explains. In that instance it was the manifestation of God
in judgment.

The glory of the Lord's Person carefully guarded

Jesus thus creates in His own position as man the place into
which He introduces us by redemption (John 20: 17). But the glory
of His Person is always carefully guarded. There is no object
presented to Jesus, as to Saul for instance, and, in a still more
analogous case, to Stephen, who, being full of the Spirit, sees
also the heavens opened, and looks up into them, and sees Jesus,
the Son of man, and is transformed into His image. Jesus has come;
He is Himself the object over whom the heavens open; He has no
transforming object, as Stephen, or as we ourselves in the Spirit;
heaven looks down at Him, the perfect object of delight. It is His
relationship with His Father, already existing, which is sealed
[1]. Neither does the Holy Ghost create His character (except so
far as, with respect to His human nature, He was conceived in the
virgin Mary's womb by the power of the Holy Ghost); He had
connected Himself with the poor, in the perfection of that
character, before He was sealed, and then acts according to the
energy and the power of that which He received without measure in
His human life here below (compare Acts 10: 38, Matthew 12: 28,
John 3: 34).

[1] This is true also of us when we are in that relationship by
grace.

Four memorable occasions on which the heavens open: Christ the object of each

We find in the word four memorable occasions on which the
heavens open. Christ is the object of each of these revelations;
each has its especial character. Here the Holy Ghost descends upon
Him, and He is acknowledged the Son of God (compare John 1: 33,
34). At the end of the same chapter of John, He declares Himself to
be the Son of man. There it is the angels of God who ascend and
descend upon Him. He is, as Son of man, the object of their
ministry[1]. At the end of Acts 7 an entirely new scene is
opened. The Jews reject the last testimony that God sends
them. Stephen, by whom this testimony is rendered, is filled with
the Holy Ghost, and the heavens are opened to him. The earthly
system was definitely closed by the rejection of the Holy Ghost's
testimony to the glory of the ascended Christ. But this is not
merely a testimony. The Christian is filled with the Spirit, heaven
is opened to him, the glory of God is manifested to him, and the
Son of man appears to him, standing at the right hand of God. This
is a different thing from the heavens open over Jesus, the object
of God's delight on earth. It is heaven open to the Christian
himself, his object being there when rejected on earth. He sees
there by the Holy Ghost the heavenly glory of God, and Jesus, the
Son of man, the special object of the testimony he renders, in the
glory of God. The difference is as remarkable as it is interesting
to us; and it exhibits, in a most striking manner, the true
position of the Christian as on earth, and the change which the
rejection of Jesus by His earthly people has produced. Only, the
church, the union of believers in one body with the Lord in heaven,
was not yet revealed. Afterwards (Rev. 19) heaven opens, and the
Lord Himself comes forth, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Thus
we see: Jesus, the Son of God on earth, the object of heaven's
delight, sealed with the Holy Ghost; Jesus, the Son of man, the
object of the ministry of heaven, angels being His servants; Jesus,
on high at the right hand of God, and the believer, full of the
Spirit, and suffering here for His sake, beholding the glory on
high, and the Son of man in the glory; and Jesus, the King of kings
and Lord of lords, coming forth to judge and make war against the
scornful men who dispute His authority and oppress the earth.

[1] It is all a mistake to make Christ the ladder. He, as Jacob
was, is the object of their service and ministry.

The obedient Man on earth, the Son of God sealed with the Holy Ghost

To return: the Father Himself acknowledges Jesus, the obedient
man on earth, who enters as the true Shepherd by the door, as His
beloved Son in whom is all His delight. Heaven is opened to Him; He
sees the Holy Ghost come down to seal Him, the infallible strength
and support of the perfection of His human life; and He has the
Father's own testimony to the relationship between them. No object
on which His faith was to rest is presented to Him as it is to
us. It is His own relation to heaven and to His Father which is
sealed. His soul enjoys it through the descent of the Holy Ghost
and the voice of His Father.

Heaven opened to believers by redemption

But this passage in Matthew requires some further notice. The
blessed Lord, or rather what occurred as to Him, gives the place or
model in which He sets believers, be they Jew or Gentile: only of
course we are brought there by redemption. "I go to my Father and
your Father, my God and your God," is His blessed word after His
resurrection. But to us heaven is opened; we are sealed with the
Holy Ghost; the Father owns us as sons. Only the divine dignity of
Christ's Person is always carefully guarded here in humiliation, as
in the transfiguration in glory. Moses and Elias are in the same
glory, but disappear when Peter's haste, permitted to be expressed,
would put them on a level. The nearer we are to a divine Person,
the more we adore and recognise what He is.

The Trinity first fully revealed

But another very remarkable fact is found here. For the first
time, when Christ takes this place among men in lowliness, the
Trinity is fully revealed. No doubt the Son and Spirit are
mentioned in the Old Testament. But there the unity of the Godhead
is the great revealed point. Here the Son is owned in man, the Holy
Ghost comes down on Him, and the Father owns Him as His Son. What a
wonderful connection with man! what a place for man to be in!
Through Christ's connection with Him the Godhead is revealed in its
own fulness. His being a man draws it out in its display. But He
was really a man, but the Man in whom the counsels of God about man
were to be fulfilled.

In conflict with the enemy

Hence, as He has realised and displayed the place in which man
is set with God in His own Person, and in the counsels of grace as
to us our relationship with God, so, as we are in conflict with the
enemy, He enters into that side of our position also. We have our
relationship with God and our Father, and now we have to say to
Satan also. He overcomes for us, and shows us how to
overcome. Remark too, the relationship with God is first fully
settled and brought out, and then, as in that place, the conflict
with Satan begins, and so with us. But the first question was,
Would the second Adam stand where the first had failed? only, in
the wilderness of this world and Satan's power -- instead of the
blessings of God -- for there we had got.

The people's history closed in judgment; a new thing announced: the Kindgom of Heaven

Another point is to be remarked here, fully to bring out the
place the Lord takes. The law and the prophets were till John. Then
the new thing is announced, the kingdom of heaven. But judgment
closes with God's people. The axe is at the root of the trees, the
fan is in the hand of the coming One, the wheat is gathered into
God's garner, the chaff burnt up. That is, there is a close of the
history of God's people in judgment. We come in on the ground of
being lost, anticipating the judgment; but man's history as
responsible was closed. Hence it is said, "now once in the end of
the world he hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself." It has happened externally and literally to Israel; but
it is morally true for us: only we are gathered for heaven, as in
result the remnant then, and shall be in heaven. But, Christ
rejected, the history of responsibility is over, and we come in in
grace as already lost. Consequent on the announcement of this as
imminent, Christ comes and, identifying Himself with the remnant
who escape on repentance, makes this new place for man on the
earth: only we could not be in it till redemption was
accomplished. Still He revealed the Father's name to those He had
given Him out of it.